Moore was only the ninth person in Motion Picture Academy history to receive two acting Oscar nominations in the same year when she was nominated for Best Actress for Far From Heaven and Best Supporting Actress for The Hours in 2002. She previously had received an Oscar nomination for her featured work in Boogie Nights. Her other film credits include The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag, Body of Evidence, Benny & Joon, The Fugitive, Short Cuts, Vanya on 42nd Street which centers on actors rehearing for a stage production, Safe, Nine Months, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, The Myth of Fingerprints, The Big Lebowski, Psycho, Cookie's Fortune, An Ideal Husband, A Map of the World, The End of the Affair, Magnolia, Hannibal, Evolution, World Traveler, The Shipping News, Marie and Bruce, Laws of Attraction, The Forgotten, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio and Freedomland.
Moore has some stage experience. After earning her B.F.A. from Boston University's School for the Performing Arts, she appeared off-Broadway in Caryl Churchill's Serious Money and Ice Cream/Hot Fudge at the Public Theater. She also appeared in Hamlet at the Guthrie Theater.
The Vertical Hour centers on Nadia Blye Moore, a young American war correspondent turned academic who now teaches Political Studies at Yale. A brief holiday with her boyfriend in the Welsh borders brings her into contact with a kind of Englishman whose culture and beliefs are a surprise and a challenge, both to her and to her relationship. It will be the first time in Hare's career that one of his plays will have a world premiere in the U.S.